Biography in English

Hsiung Shih-hui (1894-) served Chiang Kaishek as an officer on the Northern Expedition, governor of Kiangsi (1931-41), head of a military mission to the United States (194243), and head of the Northeast headquarters of the Military Affairs Commission (1945-47). He then lived in Hong Kong, Macao, and Bangkok before moving to Taiwan in 1954. Born in an agricultural village in Anyi hsien, Kiangsi, Hsiung Shih-hui was the sixth of seven children. His father was active in military affairs and often acted as instructor for the local militia. Hsiung received his early education in a private school in his native village. In 1908 his father enrolled him in the Kiangsi Army Primary School, and in the spring of 1911 he transferred to the Fourth Army Middle School at Nanking. About this time, he secretly joined the T'ung-meng-hui. After the outbreak of the Wuchang revolt in October 1911, Hsiung joined the revolutionary forces. Feng Kuo-chang (q.v.) defeated the republican troops, and Hsiung returned to Nanking in December. He then became a staff officer under the republican tutuh [military governor] Ch'eng Te-ch'uan.

In the spring of 1913 Hsiung resigned from his post and went to north China, where he entered the Ch'ing-ho Army Preparatory School. After completing the course, he enrolled at the Paoting Military Academy as a member of the second class. He was graduated in the summer of 1915. In December, when Ts'ai O (q.v.) and others took action against Yuan Shih-k'ai, Hsiung went to Yunnan province and became executive officer in the 38th Regiment of the 4th Division of the Second Army, commanded by Li Lieh-chün (q.v.). A number of other officers who later became prominent in the Nationalist military establishment—notably Chang Chih-chung, Chu P'ei-te (qq.v.), and Wang Chün—also served in the 4th Division.

In the spring of 1920 Hsiung Shih-hui, along with Chu P'ei-te and other officers of the 4th Division, supported Li Lieh-chün's attempt to wrest control of the Yunnan troops in Kwangtung from Li Ken-yuan (q.v.). The attempt was unsuccessful, and Hsiung went to Tokyo, where he enrolled at the Shikan Gakko [military academy] in 1920. After graduation in 1924, he returned to Canton, where Sun Yat-sen was attempting to consolidate a Nationalist base. Hsiung became chief instructor at the Yunnan Army Military Officers School, which came under the jurisdiction of the Third Army, commanded by Chu P'ei-te.

When the Northern Expedition was launched in July 1926, Hsiung Shih-hui was given the assignment of subverting Lai Shih-huang, the commander of the 4th Kiangsi Division. At the beginning of August, Hsiung met with Lai, who was a personal friend, at Juichin. Through Lai Shih-huang, Hsiung gained regular access to the war plans of Sun Ch'uan-fang (q.v.). He relayed the information to Ho Ying-ch'in (q.v.) for transmittal to Chiang Kai-shek. In mid-August, Lai received command of the Fourteenth Army, and Hsiung Shih-hui became the Kuomintang representative in that unit. In September 1926 the Fourteenth Army began to advance against Teng Ju-cho, the Kiangsi tuchün [military governor]. Kanchow was occupied on 6 September, and on orders from Li Chi-shen and Ho Ying-ch'in in Canton, Lai Shih-huang proceeded to garrison the city. Hsiung Shih-hui led two regiments northward in conjunction with the Fifth Division of the Second Army. The advance through southern Kiangsi assisted the revolutionary forces besieging Nanchang, the provincial capital. Hsiung's forces arrived in northern Kiangsi in time to join that battle, and Nanchang was occupied on 8 November 1926.

Toward the end of November, the victorious Nationalists established a Kiangsi provincial political committee, and Hsiung Shih-hui was appointed to it. In the meantime. Ho Yingch'in had begun to advance into Fukien. After Ho had captured Changchow and Chuanchow in November, Lai Shih-huang's Fourteenth Army was ordered to that front. The forces of Ho Ying-ch'in captured Foochow at the beginning of December, and the Fourteenth Army was assigned to eastern Kiangsi to prepare for an attack on Chekiang. Hsiung Shih-hui then received command of the 1st Division of the Fourteenth Army, retaining his position as party representative.

After the Nationalists consolidated control of the Shanghai-Nanking area in March 1927, Hsiung and his forces were stationed at Kiangyin on garrison duty. In May, the Fourteenth Army resumed its northward march as part of the forces under the general command of Ho Ying-ch'in. Hsiung's division crossed the Yangtze, drove northward, and prepared for an attack on Shantung. But news of the advance on Nanking by T'ang Sheng-chih (q.v.) caused Nationalist commander Pai Ch'ung-hsi to order a general retreat. Hsiung withdrew to Yangchow in August 1927 and then took up garrison duties at Wusih and Kiangyin.

At the end of August 1927, when the Chihli- Shantung forces met the Nationalist forces in a critical battle at Lungtan, the Fourteenth Army was ordered to advance from Kiangyin and cut off the enemy's line of retreat. Lai Shih-huang delayed too long, and, although the Nationalists won the battle of Lungtan, he was charged with dereliction in the performance of duty and was executed by a firing squad on 31 December. The Fourteenth Army was reorganized as the Thirteenth Army, wdth Hsiung Shih-hui as deputy commander. Hsiung retained command of the 1st Division, which was redesignated the 37th Division. In January 1928 Pai Ch'ung-hsi, then the Woosung-Shanghai garrison commander, took the field in a campaign against T'ang Shengchih's remnant forces in Hunan province. Hsiung was assigned as acting garrison commander at Shanghai. When plans were made for the final stage of the Northern Expedition in early 1928, Hsiung Shih-hui's 37th Division was designated a reserve force for the First Group Army commanded by Chiang Kai-shek. On 1 April 1928 Hsiung turned over the Woosung-Shanghai garrison force to Ch'ien Ta-chün (q.v.).

When Japanese resistance to the northward advance of the Nationalist forces through Shantung led to the Tsinan Incident in May 1928, Chiang Kai-shek named Hsiung Shih-hui and Lo Chia-lun (q.v.) to meet with the Japanese and work out a peaceful settlement of the affair. The Japanese rejected the two delegates on the grounds that they were too junior in rank. Ho Ch'eng-chün (q.v.) was assigned to handle the negotiations, and Hsiung went to Nanking. After the successful conclusion of the Northern Expedition in mid- 1928, Hsiung was reappointed Woosung- Shanghai garrison commander in October. In the military regroupings of 1929 Hsiung received command of the Eight Army, which, however, was reorganized soon thereafter as the 5th Division. In May 1930, when the Nationalists began so-called bandit-suppression campaigns against Communist forces in rural areas, Hsiung was assigned to direct military operations in the Kiangsu-Chekiang-Anhwei area. In December, he was ordered to Nanchang for consultation with Chiang Kaishek. The plane in which he was traveling, however, crashed as it was taking off at Shanghai, and Hsiung received a foot injury. It took him several months to recover, but in June 1931 he finally reported to Nanchang, where Chiang Kai-shek appointed him chief of staff in his field headquarters. In that capacity, he participated in the 1931 campaign against the Communists.

In December 1931 Hsiung Shih-hui was named governor of Kiangsi. The Chinese Communists under Mao Tse-tung had established a central soviet government at Juichin, with its territorial base in the south-central part of the province. Hsiung was given responsibility for civil affairs, education, and peace preservation in the province. He also became a member of the provincial branch of the Kuomintang. In May 1933 he was given the additional office of chief of staff in Chiang Kai-shek's Nanchang headquarters. In 1933 and 1934 Hsiung Shih-hui and Yang Yung-t'ai (q-v.) were regarded as being the two most influential men in the Generalissimo's headquarters at Nanchang. Yang Yung-t'ai, whom Hsiung had introduced to Chiang Kai-shek, served as chief secretary at the Nanchang headquarters, which was a major administrative center for political, military, and party affairs not only for Kiangsi but also for the provinces of Honan, Hupeh, and Anhwei. Both Hsiung and Yang were active in promoting the New Life Movement {see Chiang Kai-shek). And both men were regarded as pillars of the so-called political science faction, which was composed of senior officials who exercised major influence in the National Government in the 1930's and 1940's. After the Nationalist encirclement campaigns had forced the Communists to evacuate their base area in southern Kiangsi in the autumn of 1934, Hsiung Shih-hui enjoyed an interlude of relative tranquility in the province. He remained on good terms with the top Nationalist authorities at Nanking, and in November 1935 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. Shortly after the Sino-Japanese "war began in 1937, Hsiung proposed to Chiang Kai-shek that his son Chiang Ching-kuo (q.v.), who had returned from the Soviet Union in April, be sent to Kiangsi to work under him. Chiang Kai-shek approved the plan, and Chiang Ching-kuo went to Nanchang in January 1938. After the Japanese military advance up the Yangtze valley, Hsiung removed the seat of the provincial government to T'aiho in the spring of 1939.

After a decade of service as governor of his native province, Hsiung was assigned to new responsibilities after the United States entered the war in December 1941. He was appointed to the Supreme National Defense Council, and in March 1942 he was named chief of a Chinese military mission to the United States. Shortly after the appointment was announced, Hsiung publicly warned the embattled Allies ofJapanese military strength and predicted that the Japanese would attack the Soviet Union. He then flew to Washington, where he worked to obtain for China the largest possible amount of United States aid.

The Chinese military mission at Washington was not admitted into the top-secret inner councils of the early wartime strategy conferences, and the United States was unable to allot to China the quantities of military supplies that the Chinese wanted. In July 1942, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, Hsiung Shih-hui gave a speech in New York in which he accused the United States of having failed to fulfill its pledges to China and stated that the series of defeats suffered by the Allies after Pearl Harbor had led to "the most critical and dangerous crisis in China's history." China, he continued, was still waiting for large-scale American aid. If China were defeated, he warned, Japan might be able to wage war for a hundred years. Because of Chinese dissatisfaction with Allied war strategy, which gave first priority to the European theater, Hsiung and his mission were recalled to Chungking at the end of 1942. On 31 December 1942, just before departing, he met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hsiung returned to China in April 1943, after stopping in London for the announced purpose of studying the war situation.

In August 1943, Hsiung Shih-hui was appointed secretary general of the Central Planning Board, the organ responsible for wartime and postwar reconstruction. He held that office until the summer of 1945, when he was called upon to accompany T. V. Soong (q.v.) to Moscow for the negotiations which finally resulted in the signature, on 14 August, of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance.

Shortly thereafter, Hsiung Shih-hui was given a new assignment. On 31 August 1945 the National Government announced that, in connection with projected reestablishment of its authority in Manchuria, it planned to create a Northeast headquarters of the Military Affairs Commission, with Hsiung Shih-hui as director. A few days later, Hsiung was also given the post of chairman of the political affairs commission of the headquarters. His close ties with Chiang Kai-shek and Ho Ying-ch'in may well have played a part in determining his assignment to the top militarypolitical position in what was clearly to become a key post in the postwar competition for power in the Far East. Chang Kia-ngau (Chang Chia-ao, q.v.) was assigned responsibility for economic affairs in Manchuria, and Chiang Ching-kuo was named special foreign affairs commissioner. A substantial number of Hsiung Shih-hui's associates were named to posts in Manchuria.

Hsiung proceeded to his post at Changchun, which had been known as Hsinking while it had been the capital of Manchoukuo. Other Nationalist officials began to gather there to plan the reassertion of Chinese Nationalist authority in the area. Hsiung's initial task was to establish liaison with Marshal Rodion Ya. Malinovsky, the commander of the Soviet military forces which had entered Manchuria in August 1945. After Hsiung informed Malinovsky that the United States Navy was preparing to disembark Chinese Nationalist troops at the port of Dairen, the Soviet ambassador at Chungking on 6 October 1945 informed the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs that the Soviet government objected to the planned operation. Hsiung clashed with Malinovsky over the issue and made unsuccessful attempts to designate alternative ports in southern Manchuria at which the Chinese Nationalist troops could land. Hsiung then pressed for the use of airfield facilities at major Manchurian cities to enable the Nationalists to land both troops and civilian officials at these points from United States military aircraft. Malinovsky again demurred, and in October and early November 1945, Chinese Communist forces, which had moved rapidly to Manchuria from north China after the Japanese surrender, seized the airfield at Changchun and occupied the city.

The Chinese Communists established a local government at Changchun and confined the Nationalist officials there, about 500 men, to the South Manchurian Railway building which had been their headquarters. Malinovsky's forces did not assist the beleaguered Nationalists. On 9 November 1945, Hsiung Shih-hui flew to Nanking to report on the serious situation that had already developed in Manchuria. The National Government ordered its officials at Changchun to withdraw to Peiping in north China, and on 17 November they left Changchun by air. Chiang Ching-kuo and a few other officials remained behind for a period to maintain liaison with Malinovsky's headquarters. In 1946-47 Manchuria was a major theater in the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists. Although the Nationalists scored some initial successes, a Communist offensive directed by Lin Piao (q.v.) in May and June 1947 gave the Communists the initiative. In July, the National Government at Nanking ordered nation-wide military mobilization, and, at the end of August, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to reorganize the Nationalist political and military command structure in Manchuria. Ch'en Ch'eng (q.v.), chief of the general staff, was assigned to replace Hsiung Shih-hui as director of the Northeast headquarters and of its political affairs commission. After his dismissal from the Manchurian command in the autumn of 1947, Hsiung was given a sinecure post as a strategy adviser at Nanking. When Nationalist power on the mainland collapsed in 1949, Hsiung Shih-hui did not follow Chiang Kai-shek and the National Government to Taiwan. He lived for a time in Hong Kong and Macao. Hsiung believed that the tiny Portuguese colony of Macao would retain its immunity, as it had during the Second World War. He lived there quietly and entertained some of the Portuguese officials of the colony. A border incident in the early 1950's apparently shocked Hsiung into the realization that Macao was not as secure a place of retirement as he had thought. He then moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where he reportedly suffered heavy financial losses after investing in a cotton mill. In 1954 Hsiung Shih-hui moved to Taiwan, where he lived in retirement at Taichung.

Biography in Chinese

 

熊式辉
字:天翼
熊式辉(1894—),在北伐战争时是蒋介石部下的一名军官。1931—1941年任江西省主席,1942—1943年任访美军事代表团团长。1945—1947年任东北行营主任。去台湾之前,他曾在香港、澳门、曼谷居住,1954年去台湾。
熊式辉生在江西安义县的一个农村,他家七个孩子,熊式辉行六。他父亲在军界很活跃,在本乡团练中当教官。熊式辉早年在本村私塾上学。1908年,他父亲把他送到江西陆军小学,1911年春,转入南京第四陆军中学。大约在此时,他秘密加入了同盟会。
辛亥革命武昌起义后,熊式辉加入了革命军,冯国璋打败了革命军,熊式辉于12月回南京。他后来在江苏都督程德全部下任参谋。
1913年春,熊辞职去北方,进清河陆军预备学校。毕业后又进保定军官学校二期,1915年夏毕业。12月,蔡锷等人起兵反对袁世凯,熊式辉到李烈钧第二军第四师三十八团当主任参谋。后来在国民党军队中不少有名的军官,如张治中、朱培德、王均,都出身于第四师。
1920年春,熊式辉、朱培德和第四师的一些军官,拥护李烈钧从李根源手中夺取在广东的滇军的控制权。此举未能成功,熊式辉去东京,1920年进日本士官学校学习。1924年毕业后回广州,孙逸仙正在那里试图巩固革命据点。熊式辉在滇军军官学校当主任教官,该校属朱培德的第三军管辖。
1926年6月,北伐誓师后,派熊式辉去劝说赣军第四师师长赖世璜归顺革命军。赖是他的朋友,他们在8月初在瑞金会面。他通过赖世璜经常得到孙传芳的作战方案。他把这些情报经由何应钦转给蒋介石。8月中旬,赖世璜任国民革命军第十四军军长,熊式辉任该军党代表。
1926年9月,第十四军开始进攻江西督办邓如琢,9月6日攻占赣州,在广州的李济琛、何应钦令赖守卫赣州,熊式辉则率领两个团北去与第二军第五师会合,向北推进支持了国民革命军对南昌的包围。熊式辉的部队从赣南及时赶到,参加了这次战役。南昌于1926年11月8日攻克。
11月底,国民革命军成立了江西省政府委员会,熊式辉任省政府委员。同时,何应钦进军福建,11月攻占漳州、泉州,赖世璜奉命调往该线。12月初,何应钦攻占福州,赖世璜第十四军又调往赣东,准备进攻浙江。熊式辉任十四军第一师师长、兼该军党代表。
1927年3月,国民革命军巩固了沪宁地区的控制后,熊式辉部驻防江阴。5月,第十四军作为何应钦所指挥的一部分,继续向北进军,熊式辉师渡江北上准备进攻山东。但武汉政府的唐生智进攻南京的消息使白崇禧下令全面撤退。熊式辉于1927年8月撤到扬州,担任江阴、无锡守卫。
1927年8月底,直鲁联军和国民革命军在龙潭激战,第十四军奉令从江阴出发,切断敌军后路,赖世璜贻误戎机,国民革命军虽然在龙潭一战中获胜,赖世璜以玩忽职守,于12月31日被枪决。第十四军改编为第十三军,熊式辉任副军长,兼第一师师长,该师改称为第三十七师。
1928年1月,当时的淞沪警备司令白崇禧,正在开始肃清唐生智在湖南残部的战斗,熊式辉在上海代理淞沪警备司令。1928年初制订出北伐最后阶段方案时,熊式辉的第三十七师派作蒋介石第一集团军的预备队。1928年4月1日,熊式辉将淞沪警备部队交由钱大钧指挥。
国民革命军进军山东时,日军阻其北上,发生了1928年5月的济南事件。蒋介石派熊式辉、罗家伦与日方会商以求和平解决。日方以这两人的官阶太低为借口拒不接见,乃由何成浚主持谈判,熊式辉回南京。1928年中,北伐战争胜利结束,10月,熊式辉再任淞沪警备司令。
在1929年部队重新部署时,熊式辉任第八军军长,该军不久又整编为第五师。1930年5月,国民党军开始了所谓“剿匪”,进袭农村中的红军,熊式辉任苏、浙、皖地区的指挥。12月,蒋介石召他去南昌谘询,飞机在离上海时失事,熊式辉脚部受伤,数月后才伤愈。1931年6月,他终于到了南昌,蒋介石任他为战地司令部参谋长。他以此职务参加了1931年对共产党的围剿。
1931年12月,熊式辉任江西省政府主席。中国共产党在毛泽东领导下,在瑞金成立中央苏维埃政府,以江西中、南部为根据地。熊式辉负责管理江西的民政、教育和治安,并任国民党江西省党部主任,1933年5月,兼任南昌行营主任。1933年和1934年间,熊式辉和杨永泰是南昌行营最有权势的人。杨永泰由熊式辉向蒋介石推荐为行营秘书长,行营是党、政、军大权中心,其权力不仅及于江西,并包括河南、湖北、安徽。熊、杨积极推行新生活运动。这两人被称为政学系台柱,该系还有一些三十年代、四十年代在国民政府中影响很大的高级官员。
国民党的“围剿”使共产党于1934年秋撤出赣南根据地,熊式辉在江西得有一段相对安定的时期。他与南京国民党最高当局一直保持良好关系,1935年11月,被选为中央执行委员。1937年中日战争爆发后,熊式辉向蒋介石建议,把在4月从苏联回来的儿子蒋经国派到江西到他手下工作,蒋介石同意后,1938年1月,蒋经国去南昌。日军沿长江流域推进后,熊式辉于1939年春把省政府迁到泰和。
熊式辉在家乡当了十年左右的省主席,1941年12月美国参战后才调任新职。熊任最高国防委员会委员,1942年3月,任访美军事代表团团长。在他的任命发表后不久,他公开警告参战各盟国勿轻视日本的军事力量,并预言日本将进攻苏联。然后,他飞往华盛顿,他在那里争取美国尽可能的大量援助。
中国在华盛顿的军事代表团没有资格出席战争初期战略会议绝密的内部各项会议,美国也不能满足中国所要求的军事物资数量。1942年7月,中日战争五周年之际,熊式辉在纽约作了一次演说,埋怨美国未能信守对中国的诺言,声称自珍珠港事变后,盟军的一系列失利,造成了“中国历史上最大、最严重的危机”,他又说,中国仍希望美国能给以大量援助。他警告说,倘若中国被战败,那日本可以长期作战达百年之久。中国对以欧洲战场为主的战略方针表示不满,1942年底,熊式辉及代表团被召回重庆。1942年12月31日,熊在离美之前,会见了罗斯福总统。1943年4月回到中国,途中曾在伦敦停留,声称是为了了解战局。
1943年8月,熊担任战时和战后建设的中央设计委员会秘书长。1945年夏,他随同宋子文去莫斯科谈判,8月14日签订中苏友好同盟条约。
1945年8月31日,熊式辉又被授以新任。国民政府宣称,恢复东北统治,准备成立军委会东北行营,以熊式辉为主任,不久又兼任行营政务委员会主席。熊之所以被任这个显然是远东力量争夺的关键最高军政要职,这可能与他和蒋介石及何应钦的亲密关系有很大关系。张嘉璈负责东北的经济,蒋经国任东北特别外交专员。还有一大批熊式辉的人在东北担任各项职务。
熊式辉到长春就职,那里是满洲国的首都,曾改称为新京。其他国民党官员也在那里聚集,计划重新确立国民党在该地区的统治。熊首先与1945年进入东北的苏军司令马林诺夫斯基取得联系。熊式辉对马林诺夫斯基说,美国海军准备运输国民党军队到大连。10月6日,苏联驻重庆大使通知国民党外交部说明苏联政府反对此项计划。熊式辉和马林诺夫斯基对此发生了争执,并就另选一处供国民党军队登陆之南满港这一问题作过多次无成效的努力。熊式辉于是要求使用东北大都市的飞机场设备,由美国军用飞机输运国民党军队和文职官员。马林诺夫斯基又加以反对。1945年10月及11月初,中国共产党军队自日本投降后迅速从华北调入满洲,占领了长春飞机场及长春。
中国共产党在长春成立了地方政府,在国民党总部所在的南满铁路局大楼监禁了约五百名长春的国民党官员。马林诺夫斯基的部队对受包围的国民党军并未加以协助。1945年11月9日,熊式辉飞往南京,报告东北的紧急局势。国民政府下令长春国民党官员撤到北平,他们在11月17日飞离长春。蒋经国和其他少数官员稍作停留,以保持和马林诺夫斯基司令部的联系。
1946—1947年,东北是国、共双方的主要战场。国民党军队开头虽取得一些胜利,1947年5、6月间,林彪率领的共产党部队发动反攻,取得了主动权。7月,南京国民政府发布总动员令。8月底,蒋介石被迫改组东北的军政机构,调参谋总长陈诚为东北行营主任和政务委员。1947年秋,熊式辉在南京担任了战略顾问这样一个闲职。
1949年,国民党势力在大陆崩溃后,熊式辉并未随同蒋介石和国民政府去台湾。他在香港、澳门居留了一些时间。他认为小小的葡萄牙属地澳门会像在第二次大战时那样得免于战火。他安然在那里居住,并与该地的一些葡萄牙官员交往。五十年代初的一次边界事件,使熊受到震惊而认识到澳门也不是像他所想的那样一个安全退隐之地,于是他迁往曼谷。他在那里据说经营纺织业,经济上蒙受极大损失。1954年,他迁往台湾,在台中过隐居生活。

 

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